I've owned Falcons, Cowboys, Ravens, Bears, Jags gear, probably others I can't remember. I love football and I only hate a couple teams. I'd never wear anything from the Cards or Rams and I'd rather die than wear anything 9ers/stealers. Middle school was rough, the Seahawks were terrible and I used to get made fun of for wearing Hawks gear. I suffered through it though and now I wear it as often as possible and wear it as a big middle finger to every non Seahawks fan.

Having spent the first 18 years of my life in suburban Chicago, I grew up a Bears fan. The peak of my Bears fan-dom occurred in 1963 when the Bears beat the Giants 14-10 at Wrigley Field to become the 1963 NFL Champions. In '63 I was 14. I loved my Bears... George Halas, Willie Gallimore, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Mike Ditka and many more. A notable factoid... George Allen was the Bears DC in 1963 and he was awarded the game ball from the championship game.

In 1969 I was drafted into the Army. After my obligatory two years were up, I returned to Chicago (affectionately referred to as ShitCity by me and my close ex-military buddies at the time) but promptly fled northern Illinois for the outdoor beauty and serenity of extreme southern Illinois... Carbondale, IL, the home of Southern Illinois University. Once there, my NFL allegiance shifted to the St. Louis Cardinals who were then known as the Cardiac Kids during the Air Coryell era. Jim Hart was their QB and Terry Metcalf was their all-purpose RB. Like Percy Harvin, Metcalf was a threat to go the distance every time he touched the ball. I stayed a Cardinals fan until the day that I left Carbondale for Seattle in December of 1980.

JSeahawks wrote:So I was hanging out with my parents and my sisters last night and we were watching some of our old family video's from when we were all little kids when to my shame, there was little JSeahawks, about 3 years old sporting a Dallas Cowboys bib. In my defense I looked pretty pissed off so i'm sure it was forced upon me.

In an even darker period of my life I remember sporting a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket for a year sometime around 4th grade (which would have been 1982ish). My dad was a big Steeler fan back then (he is now almost as big of a Seahawk fan as I am) and i'm sure he bought me the coat which I remember loving. He was also a Beaver fan but luckily I rebelled against that and became a Duck fan.

Luckily, soon after that dark period I discovered Kenny Easley, Steve Largent and Curt Warner and all thru high school i was sporting the badass old school Seahawks Starter jacket and the rockin Seahawks zubaz pants (see below). Dave Krieg, Brian Blades and others helped me evolve into the sophisticated, highly intelligent sports fan that I am today.

Anybody else have similar stories of misfortune from their youth? Anybody dare to admit that they wore **gasp** 49er gear?

SussexSeahawk wrote:Regrettably I had one of those satiny LA Rams starter jackets around the time when Dickerson was playing,as all you could get over here at that time merchandise wise, was Dolphins, Redskins, Steelers, Raiders and Giants stuff; no Seahawks gear I so wanted a Largent shirt or Seahawks jacket!!!the lesser of those evils I thought!

Hey, don't worry. When you grew up in a rural area in the US in the 80s and everything in the house was bought out of a Sears catalog, you couldn't find anything but Dolphins, Redskins, Steelers, Raiders and Giants stuff either!

Yay internet!

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."---LP Hartley

JSeahawks wrote:So I was hanging out with my parents and my sisters last night and we were watching some of our old family video's from when we were all little kids when to my shame, there was little JSeahawks, about 3 years old sporting a Dallas Cowboys bib. In my defense I looked pretty pissed off so i'm sure it was forced upon me.

In an even darker period of my life I remember sporting a Pittsburgh Steelers jacket for a year sometime around 4th grade (which would have been 1982ish). My dad was a big Steeler fan back then (he is now almost as big of a Seahawk fan as I am) and i'm sure he bought me the coat which I remember loving. He was also a Beaver fan but luckily I rebelled against that and became a Duck fan.

Luckily, soon after that dark period I discovered Kenny Easley, Steve Largent and Curt Warner and all thru high school i was sporting the badass old school Seahawks Starter jacket and the rockin Seahawks zubaz pants (see below). Dave Krieg, Brian Blades and others helped me evolve into the sophisticated, highly intelligent sports fan that I am today.

Anybody else have similar stories of misfortune from their youth? Anybody dare to admit that they wore **gasp** 49er gear?

Man, when I was 2nd grade c.1979 I had this Seahawks jacket that I kept for years before losing about 20 years ago. I wore it to elementary school in Vegas and most didn't even know who the team was. I would kill to find one like it. It was blue with like these gray metallic like "plasticky" material arms with a single circular patch with the helmet on the left breast. I am so bummed I lost it, as my son is at the age where he could have worn it. Would be about 35 years old now. If someone has one (I know, needle in a haystack), please post a photo of it. It would bring back memories.

Last edited by rjdriver on Mon Mar 18, 2013 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Now a guppy driver. Loving the Hawks with my bro Nanomoz for over 30 years

I've got a cowboys hat and a jamal anderson jersey. The jersey I got because we are brothers from another mother. the hat...can't explain. Its pro style and a good color so I can wear it backwards and my bald head doesn't stick out. Was a boys fan as a kid and had a really cool white/blue reversible 22 that I actually gave off my back to a disabled person who was a huge Cowboy fan and was going nuts about how cool it was. Ugh, kinda feel dirty, guess i better go buy that ET jersey I have been putting off picking up.

I have always been a "Seahawk." I was conceived at an after hours party in the Kingdome restrooms. All I can reveal is it involved Efren Herrera, Bill the Beer Man and a literal truckload of undocumented, big-legged Swedish women.

As I grew into my teen years, I knew I couldn't shake the connection to this team. I can't explain it with words, but I had a longing to "go home" my real home, where my soul felt at ease.

The rest is history. Me, my friend Ralph Malph, Potsie and the Fonz always enjoyed watching the games.

Scottemojo wrote:Before I started watching the Seahawks, I rooted for the Racist Skins in the SB against the Dolphins.

Too my credit, I was a stupid little kid and thought they were from Washington. The state, that is. I also stuck a thumbtack on some guy's chair during that game and got a good ass whippin for it. Like I said, stupid kid.

You stole my story.

I was a five year redskin fans in my youth spanning the Theisman to Rypien eras.

Trenchbroom wrote:

SussexSeahawk wrote:Regrettably I had one of those satiny LA Rams starter jackets around the time when Dickerson was playing,as all you could get over here at that time merchandise wise, was Dolphins, Redskins, Steelers, Raiders and Giants stuff; no Seahawks gear I so wanted a Largent shirt or Seahawks jacket!!!the lesser of those evils I thought!

Hey, don't worry. When you grew up in a rural area in the US in the 80s and everything in the house was bought out of a Sears catalog, you couldn't find anything but Dolphins, Redskins, Steelers, Raiders and Giants stuff either!

Yay internet!

Two of my stories on this thread! As a youth in rural Western Montana in the early 70's, the Sears catalog store was the ONLY source for nearly any NFL team gear, not to mention clothes in general. My mom was buddies with the gal who managed the store, and it only took a week or two for stuff to arrive after you ordered it.

Somehow in 5th grade, I took a liking to the Redskins the year after the 72 Super Bowl, with Billy Kilmer (and their QB controversy with Sonny Jurgensen), Larry Brown, Ken Houston, Pat Fischer, Charley Taylor, Chris Hanberger, Mike Bass, and a bunch of other mostly-forgotten players, coached by George Allen "The Future Is Now", and aka The Over-The-Hill-Gang, because of all the veterans Allen brought in. I thought they had the coolest uniforms too.

My friends were mostly Rams, Vikings, Dolphins fans, with the an occasional Stealers and Raiders fan. In 6th grade, I got my prized Redskins winter coat, pretty sure courtesy of the Sears store, and wore it proudly. I would have to physically fight my older, non-football-fan brother to watch Monday night football when he wanted to watch "Rhoda" instead in that time slot. Favorite games included the "NFL Game of The Week" where the Skins beat the Vikings 35-34 in a shootout with Billy Kilmer throwing his wounded ducks, beating Fran Tarkenton and the Vikes. Used to hate the Cowboys with a passion (OK, I still do) and the darkest day of my youth was that Clint Longley last-second TD on Thanksgiving Day to beat my beloved Redskins. It took months to get over that one... I had to respect the hell out of Roger Staubach though, what an amazing and tough QB.

When the Seahawks came on the scene, a few years later, I was hooked, and eventually made the total switch. The Chuck Knox teams of the 80s, Dave Krieg, Curt Warner, that ball-hawking turnover-producing secondary of Dave Brown, Kenny Easley, Paul Moyer, and finally making the playoffs consistently. Oh yeah, and some slow but quick WR named Largent, I think it was. I remember watching Seahawks game tapes on the old VCR with the wired remotes! Loved the Denver game that opened with Krieg-to-Daryl-Turner for an 80 yard TD. And the 83 playoff game in Miami... a great day to be a Seahawk fan.

Grew up with the Hawks. My first memory is jumping around on my birthday in a full Largent uniform, screaming because everything about my party was Seahawks, including my cake. I have a picture I will post some time.

Everything else was player related. I loved Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham, so I followed them. I followed the Bengals because they had Boomer and my childhood mind thought that was an awesome name. Plus what kid doesn't like the Bengals uniform.

Had a 49ers pennant hanging in my room and love Montana and Rice, I also really like the Bills with Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, then when I was old enough to understand about 16 or 17 I became a big time hawk fan.

I was a huge Buccaneers fan from 1999 to like '03 the Bucs and Seahawks were like 1a and 1b for me. I was 14 years old, didn't know a lot about football, I saw a couple Tulane games in '98 and I thought Shaun King was awesome, so when the Bucs drafted him I started following them, and became a huge fan of their defense, then they started sucking and I lost interest. Now it's all Seahawks.

Back in the late 80's, my sister worked as a producer at a Pittsburgh TV station. This station had a few local Steeler programs, and she was assigned the task of staging a shot to be used in a TV Guide advertisement. She had access to the station on-air talent and was allowed to hire a few models as well to stand in the background to make it look like a tailgate.

Comes the day before the shoot and the modeling agency calls to say that all the models are going to try to be extras in a movie being shot in town, so suddenly she had to round up whoever she could to be in this shot. I was in college at the time and had a good deal of free time as well as being well-built and semi-handsome. She calls me up and begs me to come down (truthfully, I owed her a couple of favors) to the stadium parking lot after my last class the next day.

So as a personal favor to her, I posed in the background holding a Steelers pennant and chowing down on a hot dog. I refused to wear the jersey she wanted me to wear. But yeah, that was the sum total of my modeling career. And yes, it made it into the local TV Guide, a copy of which my mom still has.

...and I also liked the Bucs helmets from back in the day. I still have a pennant and mini-helmet from them buried somewhere.

"Anybody can be a Seahawks fan in Seattle. Try being one in Pittsburgh!" PROUDLY REPRESENTING SINCE 1976.

JSeahawks wrote:He was also a Beaver fan but luckily I rebelled against that and UNFORTUNATELY became a Duck fan.

You meant this right? Hahah GO DAWGS

Anyone want to make me a new signature? I've held out hope long enough.95% of the time I'm viewing here and/or posting is being done on a mobile device. Pardon any spelling, punctuation, or grammar mistakes.